My textile class at the Oakwood Center, in which I'll be teaching, how to make a RAG QUILT, is coming up soon. The art teachers at Oakwood were recently honored during the 40th anniversary gala event. Here is a photo of it from the Palm Beach Post.
Now that my class is quickly approaching, I am gathering up supplies. Gold Coast Sew & Vac Center will lease sewing machines daily, to help out.
The name of the class has been changed from "sewing" to "textiles", to attract male students. It seems the word "sewing" makes them think of it, as a woman's class. Personally, I have always thought that using a sewing machine was similar to driving a car (since you press the peddle with your foot to go faster and steer with your hands). What man doesn't like that? I hope they give it a try.
This year we will be making throw sized (40" x 56") quilts. They are fast and easy to make, and fun to snuggle up with, when finished. Since the class time is so limited and I want the students to have a finished product. They will each get a prepared kit (I use a raffle to distribute them as the color combos are various). The kit contains 35 squares of 9.25". Each square consists of a 9.25" back square an 8" square of batting and another piece of 9.25" for the front. Each square is numbered with stick-on paper for its location in the quilt. Also, a design sketch of the pattern is included. The students creativity will come out when they learn to free form quilt each block with the feed dog down. Then the blocks will be pieced together with the raw edges all exposed on one side of the quilt. We will then use Fiskar Scissors for clipping into and around the raw edges, for the fuzzy effect. I think they will love it.
